14 Top App Development Companies for Startups in 2024

Mobile apps have changed the way customers interact with businesses, making them an indispensable tool for budding companies. Having a robust mobile presence is no longer a luxury, but a necessity — especially for startups looking to make an impact. 

Yet, choosing the right app development company can significantly affect a startup’s success. The companies outlined below not only possess technical know-how, but also a deep understanding of the unique needs and challenges startups face.

Pricing: $150 to $199 per hour

Location: New York City, N.Y.

Utility is an award-winning mobile app development company that delivers experience-centered mobile apps. With clients like Airbnb, BuzzFeed, and Forbes, Utility has a track record of app development for diverse industries and client needs with usability on a large scale.

Utility deploys a thorough app development process, starting with research that includes stakeholder interviews and a competitor analysis. The process then moves into strategy, product design, engineering, and finally launch and growth.

Utility boasts a large and experienced team of engineers, user experience (UX) designers, and developers who manage the entire app development process for you, including conducting testing and setting up App Store requirements.

Pricing: By Contact

Location: Warsaw, Poland 

Innowise Group is a reputable app development company for startups with a talented team of Kotlin and Swift/Objective-C developers. It provides mobile app development services tailored for both Android and iOS platforms. The company boasts vast experience in building robust, user-friendly apps across several industries, including finance, healthcare, and education. 

Notably, Innowise stands out for its high-quality designs and intuitive user experiences that captivate users from the outset. It’s also well-versed in cross-platform development, producing apps that function seamlessly across Android and iOS platforms with a single codebase.

The company places a strong emphasis on security, performance, and scalability throughout the development process. It collaborates closely with its clients to understand their needs and transform their visions into successful, on-brand mobile solutions. This ensures its apps meet industry standards and integrate the latest technologies and trends. Innowise also offers its clients ongoing, post-launch support and maintenance to optimize apps over time.

Pricing: $25 to $49 per hour

Location: West Palm Beach, Fla. 

Cubix harnesses the power of cutting-edge technologies to build industry-leading digital products. It’s made its mark on the industry with more than 12 years of experience, more than 200 employees, and the completion of more than 600 projects for approximately 550 clients. 

The company’s services range from discovery and design to development, testing, and deployment of tailor-made digital solutions. In the discovery phase, Cubix explores project requirements and identifies where its design process can emphasize its intuitive and engaging designs. The Cubix development team then follows up and builds solid mobile applications, using agile processes to ensure flexibility and the ability to adapt to changes quickly. 

Incremental testing and stringent quality assurance are all part of this company’s testing process, and its deployment phase includes the delivery of fully functional, ready-to-ship products.

Elluminati is a global mobile app development company that builds products across various sectors, using technological platforms like Android, iOS, web apps, Node.js, AngularJS, and MongoDB. Since 2012, it’s served more than 800 clients worldwide while maintaining an impressive 85% customer retention rate. 

Its team of skilled developers creates both native and custom apps for Android and iOS devices as well as web apps compatible across different browsers, using popular technologies and web frameworks. Elluminati offers several other specialized services, including mobile user interface (UI)/UX design and quality assurance testing. It also offers different pricing models for app development. 

Having built apps for industries that range from food delivery, healthcare, and transportation to logistics, education, and home services, this company aims to provide clients with robust, secure, and affordable mobile app solutions tailored to meet their business goals.

Pricing: N/A

Location: Miami, Fla.

International company Koombea provides exceptional mobile app development services for startups. It believes custom apps are far superior to off-the-shelf solutions for living up to a startup company's unique needs. By understanding the complexities of the mobile app development process given factors like time constraints, Koombea's experienced mobile app developers strive to give clients an edge over their competition.

Specifically, Koombea uses a robust technology stack to build high-quality apps. Unlike many agencies, Koombea acts as a strategic development partner that works closely with the business. It strives to create apps that align with internal processes and meet organizational objectives. 

The company’s business analysts and developers take time to understand each client’s industry, competition, target audience, and objectives. The goal is to build an app that captures the essence of a company’s value and communicates that to the marketplace.

Pricing: $100 to $149 per hour

Location: New York City, N.Y.

BlueLabel, a reputable digital transformation agency with offices in New York City, Seattle, and San Francisco, is a fantastic choice for innovative leaders and startup founders who need to build an app. BlueLabel prides itself on its deep insight and hands-on experience with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. It specializes in designing products with a blend of generative AI and human insights. 

BlueLabel put these skills to substantial use in transforming an analog business into a major digital competitor, and its top-notch communication skills, creative thinking, and commitment to achieving goals have earned the company high praise from clients.

What makes BlueLabel stand out is its approach to problem-solving. It takes a deep look at each client’s problems, and then crafts digital solutions and provides support throughout the development process. In addition, its iterative app development process uses UX best practices and analytics to make informed, data-driven decisions.

Pricing: $25 to $49 per hour

Location: Pradesh, India 

Appinventiv is one of the leading mobile app development companies headquartered in India with an impressive portfolio, including app planning, design, app development, testing, and deployment. It focuses highly on its client-centric approach, which involves rigorous planning and execution to ensure its apps are technically robust and meet the client’s business goals. 

The company’s typical app development costs range from $30,000 to $300,000, which largely depends on factors like features, platform, and team size. Iturges clients to consider elements like scope, budget, and timeline for a successful project with the understanding that app development timelines vary based on app complexity. 

Security and quality assurance also represent top priorities for Appinventiv, which adheres to standards like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). This company also offers comprehensive testing to identify and fix vulnerabilities prior to the app deployment process.

Pricing: $150 to $199 per hour

Location: Charlottesville, Va.

WillowTree is well known for its diverse range of services (e.g., mobile app and web development, design, research, and strategy) all geared toward optimizing customer experiences and internal workflows. 

This mobile app development agency has an impressive track record, including helping FOX Sports build a mobile experience that broke records for concurrent streaming during Super Bowl LVII. WillowTree also boasts other successful partnerships, such as with Anheuser-Busch and HBO, in which it applied its iterative process model to rapidly deliver new features.

One of this company’s biggest achievements is an app development project that involved rebuilding a credit bureau's entire data infrastructure in the cloud in just three months — effectively replacing a two-year, unsuccessful initiative by another vendor. WillowTree also helped Domino's Pizza redesign its point-of-sale system, which improved order-taking, preparation, dispatch, and delivery.

Pricing: Starts at $4,199 per month

Location: Madison, Wis. 

For startups looking to build cross-platform mobile apps using a single codebase, Ionic is a top choice. They empower startups to create apps for iOS and Android simultaneously. Ionic is highly recommended by fast-growing startups like Sworkit and helps startups worldwide bring their ideas to life faster than ever before using open web technologies.

Ionic also puts a strong emphasis on flawless experiences across any device or platform. They reduce the traditional six-month development timeline down to weeks using their current web developers and a single codebase. On top of that, they offer automated app lifecycle management for continuous delivery of updates and rapid iteration. 

Pricing: $25 to $49 per hour

Location: Ukraine 

With offices in Estonia, Norway, Ukraine, and the United States, Cleveroad is a leading mobile app development agency known for providing customized software solutions to its clients. Since 2011, it’s specialized in multiple industries like technology, logistics and media, and entertainment with a customer-oriented approach. 

Cleveroad sets itself apart by leveraging technologies like Amazon Web Services (AWS), ReactJS, Scrum, Linux, and blockchain during development. The company also scored a spot on the Clutch 1000 list of global service providers in 2023.

Pricing: $50 to $99 per hour

Location: San Francisco, Calif. 

Founded in 2007, Zazz specializes in iOS and Android app development, the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR), and product maintenance. It has more than 763 mobile apps released under its name and a  client roster that spans industries like healthcare, education, ecommerce, and financial services.

Known for adopting the latest technologies and helping clients scale their vision via custom software solutions, this company uses Agile methodologies and engagement with clients throughout every step of the development process. Zazz not only offers post-launch support to handle any technical issues, but also provides strict security measures like non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and secure communication channels to ensure confidentiality.

Pricing: From $25 per hour 

Location: India and the United States 

OpenXcell is another well-known mobile app development firm that provides custom services designed to meet diverse business needs. With offices in several countries, it has more than 13 years of experience creating secure and scalable mobile apps for a worldwide clientele. Its commitment to the user experience is evident in its intuitive UI/UX design.

OpenXcell's vast team of more than 500 software engineers and technical experts use state-of-the-art technologies like Java, C++, .NET, ReactJS, Swift, Kotlin, and Flutter. The firm offers various engagement models (e.g., build-operate-transfer, time and material, and fixed-price options) to ensure an efficient process from research, design, and development to testing, maintenance, and deployment.

Pricing: $50 to $99 per hour

Location: Prague, Czech Republic

OAK'S LAB is a startup-, scaleup-, and enterprise-focused mobile app developer. Since 2016, the company has built a team of experienced product managers, UX and UI designers, and software engineers to help more than 40 startups build products.

The company separates its services into groups based on business stage: prototyping, rebuilding, and minimum viable product (MVP) development for startups; product discovery, optimization, and team augmentation for scaleups; and research and development (R&D) as well as custom software design and development for enterprises.

OAK'S LAB is one of the best mobile app developers for startups looking for a dedicated, full-stack product development team to help build their product.

Pricing: $50 to $99 per hour

Location: New York City, N.Y.

Vention has more than two decades of experience building products for startups and large enterprises. The company specializes in app development to attract venture capital backing across every industry.

Its services include MVP development, product development and strategy, UX/UI design, software as a service (SaaS) and mobile product development, quality assurance (QA) and testing, and ongoing support for post-launch projects.

Former clients of Vention include PayPal, ClassPass, Brex, and SeatGeek. The company has experience in app development for fintech, healthtech, adtech, ecommerce, education, and other sectors.